A Thousand Words (2012)

A Thousand Words Synopsis

Eddie Murphy is Jack McCall, a fast-talking literary agent, who can close any deal, any time, any way. He has set his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis) for his own selfish purposes. But Dr. Sinja is on to him, and Jack's life comes unglued after a magical Bodhi tree mysteriously appears in his backyard. With every word Jack speaks, a leaf falls from the tree and he realizes that when the last leaf falls, both he and the tree are toast. Words have never failed Jack McCall, but now he's got to stop talking and conjure up some outrageous ways to communicate or he's a goner.

John Carter has been hyped and re-hyped for months, including recent promotionals touting it as the first major blockbuster of the year. Turns out it isn't even in the top four biggest openings of the year so far.

In this weekend's A Thousand Words, Eddie Murphy is suffering the kind of fate that happens so often to movie characters: he's been cursed. It's one of the handiest and most common plot devices in movies that absolutely never happens in real life, and yet for some reason it never gets old watching a movie character cope with circumstances that seem absolutely insane

A Thousand Words seems to be the same watered-down humor we've been getting from Murphy for years. So with his big Oscar chance gone, is Eddie Murphy's comeback over before it could even start? Kristy and Mack got together to argue about just that, with Mack a Murphy diehard who believes anything is still possible, and Kristy too burned by the awful movies to have faith in him anymore

My post-Oscar hangover is just starting to wear off. Granted I didn’t drink at all during the show, but the whole thing was just so weird and disjointed that I ended up feeling wasted. Billy Crystal’s lypo-suction and Adam Sandler talking about “making movies” can have that effect on people. But what better way to dust off the cobwebs than Tim Riggins heading to Mars, Eddie Murphy shutting up and houses going quiet?

Eddie Murphy’s next bit of comedy will hopefully prove to be much funnier than Tower Heist. While amusing at times, the humor in the Brett Ratner directed film seemed spread a bit too thin across its promising cast. A Thousand Words seems to be entirely Murphy-focused, complete with a goofy scenario in which his character is entrapped.

Wasn’t Tower Heist supposed to mark the return of 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop-era Murphy? This looks much more like the hokey, one-joke premises of Imagine That or Holy Man than Murphy’s earlier, inspired comedies.

Before Avatar came around there really was no box office phenomenon quite like Titanic. Sure, there was The Dark Knight, but even at $533 million domestically it was no match for Titanic's powerful $600 million. Critics were giving it award after award and women around the world were swooning for new heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio.

Thanks to Tower Heist, the Brett Ratner controversy, and his decision to step down as the host of next year's Academy Awards, Eddie Murphy's name has been everywhere the last seven days. When you think about it, it's a remarkable feat, as Murphy hasn't actually been relevant since he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his performance in Dreamgirls (which he lost, in part, because of his decision to make Norbit).